Blogs For Victory

The end of the end is upon ua?

So, what does Hillary do when she hangs up the gloves? I don’t see her as Obama’s running mate. Politically, it isn’t the smartest move by Obama. So, does Hillary return to the Senate (remember, that job she was actually elected to do) with all the new baggage she carries from this election season? The Clinton Machine is broken, and the Clinton Brand has been severely (and perhaps permanently) damaged. Congress is full of Democrats who Hillary will see as having stabbed her in the back… and these Democrats will see her as the one who unnecessarily prolonged the Democratic primary … perhaps hurting the party’s chances of victory in November.

I don’t know. If I were advising Hillary, I wouldn’t be rushing back the Senate. I’d stick it out to the convention and hope something extraordinary happens that could somehow turn her luck around.

The gallows in my garden, people say,

Is new and neat and adequately tall;

I tie the noose on in a knowing way

As one that knots his necktie for a ball;

But just as all the neighbours–on the wall–

Are drawing a long breath to shout “Hurray!”

The strangest whim has seized me. . . . After all

I think I will not hang myself to-day.

To-morrow is the time I get my pay–

My uncle’s sword is hanging in the hall–

I see a little cloud all pink and grey–

Perhaps the rector’s mother will not call– I fancy that I

heard from Mr. Gall

That mushrooms could be cooked another way–

I never read the works of Juvenal–

I think I will not hang myself to-day.

The world will have another washing-day;

The decadents decay; the pedants pall;

And H.G. Wells has found that children play,

And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall,

Rationalists are growing rational–

And through thick woods one finds a stream astray

So secret that the very sky seems small–

I think I will not hang myself to-day.

ENVOI

Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,

The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;

Even to-day your royal head may fall,

I think I will not hang myself to-day.

– G.K. Chesterton

This is for two purposes:

1. To let you all know that I’ll be off and on posting over the next few days as the Mrs and I attend the grand-daughter’s 3rd birthday out of town.

2. Its an excellent poem for we GOPers – we’re supposed to be down and sure we’re losers…but, after all, I don’t think I shall hang myself today, because tomorrow we may beat Obama.

Not exactly the best news for Obama the day after he unofficially cliched the Democratic nomination…

RNC Chairman Duncan released the following statement tonight regarding the Rezko verdict:

“On the day Barack Obama hoped to unite his party after wheezing over the finish line and claiming the Democrat nomination, a jury in his hometown of Chicago convicted his longtime friend and fundraiser Tony Rezko of multiple felonies. This is further proof that Obama’s high-flying rhetoric is just that and in no way represents the kind of change our nation demands. Today’s verdict and Obama’s friendship with Rezko raise serious questions about whether he has the judgment to serve as president.”

In this case, on the war:

You will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it’s so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it’s very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false. So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country. But the American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama. They know I have a long record of bipartisan problem solving. They’ve seen me put our country before any President — before any party — before any special interest — before my own interest. They might think me an imperfect servant of our country, which I surely am. But I am her servant first, last and always.

I have worked with the President to keep our nation safe. But he and I have not seen eye to eye on many issues. We’ve disagreed over the conduct of the war in Iraq and the treatment of detainees; over out of control government spending and budget gimmicks; over energy policy and climate change; over defense spending that favored defense contractors over the public good.

I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration’s mismanagement of the war in Iraq. I called for the change in strategy that is now, at last, succeeding where the previous strategy had failed miserably. I was criticized for doing so by Republicans. I was criticized by Democrats. I was criticized by the press. But I don’t answer to them. I answer to you. And I would be ashamed to admit I knew what had to be done in Iraq to spare us from a defeat that would endanger us for years, but I kept quiet because it was too politically hard for me to do. No ambition is more important to me than the security of the country I have defended all my adult life.

Senator Obama opposed the new strategy, and, after promising not to, voted to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job of carrying it out. Yet in the last year we have seen the success of that plan as violence has fallen to a four year low; Sunni insurgents have joined us in the fight against al Qaeda; the Iraqi Army has taken the lead in places once lost to Sunni and Shia extremists; and the Iraqi Government has begun to make progress toward political reconciliation.

None of this progress would have happened had we not changed course over a year ago. And all of this progress would be lost if Senator Obama had his way and began to withdraw our forces from Iraq without concern for conditions on the ground and the advice of commanders in the field. Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential candidate who says he’s ready to talk, in person and without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn’t traveled to Iraq to meet with General Petraeus, and see for himself the progress he threatens to reverse.

I know Americans are tired of this war. I don’t oppose a reckless withdrawal from Iraq because I’m indifferent to the suffering war inflicts on too many American families. I hate war. And I know very personally how terrible its costs are. But I know, too, that the course Senator Obama advocates could draw us into a wider war with even greater sacrifices; put peace further out of reach, and Americans back in harm’s way.

The argument made here by Senator McCain is unanswerable – so, expect the Democrats to not answer it and seek, instead, to change the subject as swiftly as possible. But McCain – and we who support him – must not let the subject be changed. This is the vital issue of our times, and it is also the prime reason to oppose Obama: he’s not fit to be President because he has no understanding of war, military policy, foreign policy or America’s place in the world. Obama’s views seem straight out of sophomore’s notebook from a government class…the sort of pie-in-the-sky talk we get from ivory-tower academics who don’t allow reality to interfere with grand theory.

The world is a hard place, at times, and Obama is a babe in the woods – it might be that he’d be a quick study and swiftly learn to discard what he thinks he knows, but we can’t gamble America – and the lives of Americans – on a hope that Obama will change fast enough from fool to sage. McCain, on the other hand, knows from hard experience (some of it excruciatingly personal) just how rough the world can be, and how cruel our enemies are – especially when they think they have us down. In the choice this November, nothing is more stark than this difference between Obama and McCain.

As McCain points out, Obama and his Democrats will use the Big Lie to try and win – not by out arguing McCain, but by making people feel worse about McCain than they do about Obama and his Democrats. This is the tried and true Democratic tactic – they’ve used it with success in the past, and they hope to do so in 2008. Winning is the only thing Democrats care about – and Obama is a blindingly ambitious man who has proven himself capable of getting right down into the political swamp in order to win. Counter-acting this Big Lie campaign will be difficult – especially as the MSM will largely serve as Obama’s megaphone for the next 6 months, but counter it we must. America is too valuable to the whole world – not just to Americans – for it to be placed at risk to gratify the ambition and greed of leftwingers slavering at the prospect of having the levers of power in their hands.

Over at Battle Born Politics

From John McCain:

Tonight, we can say with confidence the primary season is over, and the general election campaign has begun.

Each American faces a decision this election and the choice between my candidacy and Senator Obama’s could not be more clear. This is a change election. But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change; between going forward and going backward.

The right change recognizes that many of the policies and institutions of our government have failed. The right kind of change will initiate widespread and innovative reforms in almost every area of government policy from energy to taxes to government spending and the military.

The right change will stop impeding Americans from doing what they have always done, overcome obstacles and turn challenges into opportunities.Today, I humbly ask you to join my campaign for the right change, as we move forward together as a nation.

The wrong change looks not to the future, but to the past for solutions that have failed us before and will surely fail us again. Like others before him, my opponent seems to think government is the answer to every problem. That’s not change we can believe in.

My friends, we’re not a country that would rather go back than forward. We’re the world’s leader, and leaders don’t hide from history. They make history. If we’re going to lead, we must reform a government that has lost its ability to help us do so.

I don’t seek the presidency on the presumption I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need. I seek the office with the humility of a man who cannot forget my country saved me. I assure you that if I’m elected president, the era of reform and problem solving will begin. From my first day in office, I’ll work tirelessly to make America safe, prosperous and proud. And that, my friends, is the kind of change we need.

Indeed, and John McCain asks for support – here’s the place you can go offer it.

I’d like to take a slight time out here and ask all Americans to pat themselves on the back a little bit – for all the left’s claims that we’re a bunch of racist morons, we have – after all is said and done – nominated a black man to be the standard-bearer of one of America’s two major political parties. This is rock solid proof that race is no bar to success in America – though, of course, the left will continue to make this claim, and if Obama loses, the left will blame racism for the defeat (in the left’s view, radical leftism can never be the cause of defeat).

While Hillary, at this moment, hasn’t actually conceded, there is no way she will wind up as the Democratic nominee, so the national campaign does, indeed, begin tonight (though, Hillary, if I may put a bee in your bonnet, there’s no shame in running as a third party candidate…especially after you carry your fight to the convention and make it a nasty political free for all). And the choice is clear – victory or defeat in war; strength or appeasement in foreign policy; freedom or socialism in our economy; life or death for our unborn, and for those who are ill, and won’t find an actual place in Obama’s magical health care reforms. Obama is Jimmy Carter on leftist steriods – four years of Carter nearly wrecked our nation, four years of Obama will wreck it.

John McCain proposes tough government reforms, and while many of us have many exceptions to take with him (most notably in campaign finance reform), we can rely upon is that John McCain will tell us the truth, and he will challenge the entrenched special interests which own the Democratic party body and soul. The “change” Obama brings is just a change from having a government which seeks the greater good to having a government which seeks to divvy up the pie (and that pie, dear readers, is you and I) amongst competing, corrupt interests who paid a high price to get their man into office – or do you think the lawyers ($387 million to Democrats since 2000), unions ($228 million to Democrats since 2000) and entertainment industry ($85 million to Democrats since 2000) are donating out of altruism? When you spend that much money, you are expecting something in return – in the case of these three major donors, it will be no curbs on business-destroying lawsuits, revocation of voting rights for non-union workers and no attempts to reign in an entertainment industry which becomes more depraved in its product every year. That is what Obama brings as “change”. You want it?

For our troops, for our Iraqi and Afghan allies, for our long suffering friends in Israel, for our small businessmen, for the culture of life…for all of this, we must elect McCain President of the United States of America. The choice is clear, the challenge is strong – but with faith in God and a conviction that right makes might, lets jump right into this campaign and do the right thing, always.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: She didn’t quit. Not even slightly. Interesting.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And we GOPers are rarin’ to go:

As Barack Obama wheezes over the finish line to his Party’s nomination, he has failed to convince voters that he has the experience and judgment to serve as Commander in Chief. Just as many members of his own Party refused to support his misguided policies, the majority of Americans will reject Obama’s plans to meet with hostile leaders instead of America ’s military commanders, and raise taxes on families and small businesses. The Republican Party is united behind John McCain, and we look forward to his debates with Barack Obama on how best to create new jobs at home and win the war against radical Islamic extremism. – Mike Duncan, RNC Chairman

It’s pretty much all but over for Hillary at this point. So, first I’d like to thank the Democratic Party (especially those pesky superdelegates) for securing John McCain’s victory this November.

So, let’s discuss the new issue of the moment: Hillary on the Obama ticket. Everyone is weighing in on the pros and cons.

Your thoughts.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: She didn’t quit. Not even slightly. Interesting.

Looks like all the signs are pointing to it.. but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation’s first female president.

Obama is 40 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, but he is widely expected to make up the difference Tuesday with superdelegate support and votes in South Dakota and Montana. Once he reaches the magic number of 2,118, Clinton will acknowledge that he has secured the necessary delegates to be the nominee.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City.

Is it really over for Hillary, or does she have some trick up her sleeve?

UPDATE: According to The Hill, Hillary’s campaign is still saying she won’t drop out tonight.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign spent much of the morning creating mass confusion as to what the evening could bring.

Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said on MSNBC that he thinks Clinton would concede if Obama passes the delegate threshold Tuesday night.

Since those comments, however, and a subsequent story by The Associated Press that repeated that the former first lady was set to concede, the Clinton campaign has pushed back, asserting that the New York senator has no intention of dropping out Tuesday night.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: She didn’t quit. Not even slightly. Interesting.

From McCain AIPAC speech:

The threats to Israel’s security are large and growing, and America’s commitment must grow as well. I strongly support the increase in military aid to Israel, scheduled to begin in October. I am committed to making certain Israel maintains its qualitative military edge. Israel’s enemies are too numerous, its margin of error too small, and our shared interests and values too great for us to follow any other policy.

Foremost in all our minds is the threat posed by the regime in Tehran. The Iranian president has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and suggested that Israel’s Jewish population should return to Europe. He calls Israel a “stinking corpse” that is “on its way to annihilation.” But the Iranian leadership does far more than issue vile insults. It acts in ways directly detrimental to the security of Israel and the United States.

A sponsor of both Hamas and Hezbollah, the leadership of Iran has repeatedly used violence to undermine Israel and the Middle East peace process. It has trained, financed, and equipped extremists in Iraq who have killed American soldiers fighting to bring freedom to that country. It remains the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism and threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East, from Basra to Beirut.

Tehran’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons poses an unacceptable risk, a danger we cannot allow. Emboldened by nuclear weapons, Iran would feel free to sponsor terrorist attacks against any perceived enemy. Its flouting of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty would render that agreement obsolete and could induce Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others to join a nuclear arms race. The world would have to live, indefinitely, with the possibility that Tehran might pass nuclear materials or weapons to one of its allied terrorist networks. Armed as well with its ballistic missile arsenal, an Iranian nuclear bomb would pose an existential threat to the people of Israel.

European negotiators have proposed a peaceful endgame for Tehran, should it abandon its nuclear ambitions and comply with UN Security Council resolutions. The plan offers far-reaching economic incentives, external support for a civilian nuclear energy program, and integration into the international community. But Tehran has said no…

…we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before. Yet it’s hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.

Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on.

It is purblind idiocy, sorry to say, when Obama says he will meet with the Iranian leadership without preconditions. If an enemy of the United States wanted to figure out the best way to strengthen the mullahs, diminish America and set the stage for global catastrophe, he couldn’t script anything better than an American President kowtowing to Iran’s murderous government. McCain, on the other hand, notes that Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons – with the implication being that military action will be used if nothing else works – and lays out a program of international diplomacy and economic warfare to bring Iran’s government to heel. Key to this is attacking Iran’s Achilles heel – the fact that Iran imports most of its gasoline; deny Iran this gasoline, and Iran’s economy will grind swiftly to a halt, and if that doesn’t get them to talk, nothing will, ever.

Iran with nuclear weapons is a standing threat to the lives of millions of innocent human beings, including innocent Iranians. Iraq with nuclear weapons is a nation which will feel free to sponsor terrorism all around the globe, safe under a nuclear umbrella from any direct retaliation. Iran with nuclear weapons is something which cannot be allowed to happen – and by electing McCain to carry forward policies designed to force Iran to back down, we’ll have a good shot at preventing a nuclear Iran. By electing Obama we will just ensure that Iran obtains nuclear weapons, and becomes a horrible threat to the entire world.